Google Tags Expires in 2011 – Need a Boost?
After only one year, Google is discontinuing Google Tags. Tags was a tool that enabled local businesses to promote specific areas of their business for $25/month. Are you running a Tag currently? Here are examples of how these bright yellow call-outs appear in local Google results:
Announcement
An excerpt from Google’s brief email notice to Tags users: “We are retiring Google Tags for all users on April 29, 2011. No action is required on your part, and your Places account and listing will continue to work as usual. Effective today, no new tags can be created, but all active tags will keep running to the end of April for free.”
Reasoning
Many argue that the axe of Google Tags is simply a transition in lieu of Google Boost, which also supports local small businesses. Like Tags previously, Google Boost enables business owners to create online search ads from their Google Places account. The main difference is that Boost ads use a unique blue pinpoint marker, and ads are eligible to appear both within Google Adwords sponsored listings and beside the map in local searches:
In addition, its payment plan differentiates Google Boost from Google Tags. Boost bills users on an automatic pay-per-click basis, versus a monthly standard cost.
Resources